Tag: Middle East

September 26, 2014

“Iran and the ‘Coalition of Repenters'”- from The New Yorker

Read every word. This is the dark truth about why the United States is on the wrong side of the Gulf. Why its allies have destroyed the democrats of the Arab Spring, deliberately, turned it into an Islamist and jihadi nightmare, and why we must completely rethink our allies and adversaries. Someday the story will be told of the decline of America at the hands of its despotic and repressive allies who made this country die on the altar of military and oil sales. And I include right-wing led Israel and Pakistan in this disaster of allies. yes, Iran must give up or neutralize Assad, but that is impossible as long it faces an American armed coalition surrounding it on all sides. We have solutions here, and the greatest victims, are Sunni peoples, held hostage by desperately insane Wahhabi regimes.

The New Yorker, Iran and the ‘Coalition of Repenters’…
September 26, 2014

Men and Women in War

“Force protection”. A clean phrase, and its cousin “collateral damage”, that actually mean together that today, men don’t get killed in war much. The vast majority of the dead and wounded are women and children. From Syria to Gaza, from Afghanistan to Congo. The luckier women escape the bombs aimed at them, the luckier ones escape the rape aimed at them. They are merely left to care for abandoned children who have lost their food and lost their minds. People think that ISIS and Boko Haram are the great evil of the world against women, formerly it was the Taliban as the great embodiment of evil against women. But in truth, they are just the caricatures, the showpiece cowards, who flaunt their insanity. The truth is that the entire modern construct of male war is an act of cowardice, where the majority of victims are women and children. Men have …
September 19, 2014

Reflections upon Explaining the Middle East to Washington

DRUGS

Don’t go to a drug dealer for a cure,
When the drug addict is deteriorating.
Don’t go to funders of extremism for a cure,
When their victims are deteriorating.

MAJORITIES AND MINORITIES

Being a majority is no excuse for amnesia,
Being a minority is no excuse for paranoia,
If you are both, then you are screwed.
Destined to ignore the past,
But be suspicious about why everyone hates you.

RETIREMENT

Do not ever retire,
From the purpose
Of your life.…
September 9, 2014

“Escaping Death in Northern Iraq” -International New York Times

This is very important in the ISIS issue.

International New York Time, Escaping Death in Northern Iraq

Ali Hussein Kadhim, an Iraqi soldier and a Shiite, was captured with hundreds of other soldiers by Sunni militants in June and taken to the grounds of a palace complex in Tikrit where Saddam Hussein once lived.

“I saw my daughter in my mind, saying, ‘Father, father,’ ” he said.
He felt a bullet pass by his head, and fell forward into the freshly dug trench.
“I just pretended to be shot,” he said.
A few moments later, Mr. Kadhim said, one of the killers walked among the bodies and saw that one man who had been shot was still breathing.

…The story of the massacre tells as much about the woeful state of the Iraqi military, a force created and trained by the United States at a cost of billions of dollars,
…
September 8, 2014

Thoughts on Our War World

STARVING COSMOS

How can we listen to sad love songs,
When there are so many starving for love?
Who the hell do we think we are?
What rights for pity do we think we have,
When outside our doorstep,
Is a cosmos of love-starved beings?

COSMIC ANNIHILATION CREATION

We, we are the Higgs boson,
We are elusive,
Impossible to discover,
Yet everywhere.…
September 7, 2014

Reflecting on “Dancing”

I wrote this during the Gaza war. I think the theme of dance is very important, post-quantum physics way to understand the complex interaction of enemies, how they build on each other, and what it must teach us in reverse. I am amazed at how much of a dance enemies have, how much they depend on each other’s worst behaviors. We know this scientifically but it is hard to internalize as a definition of fluid reality. All our debates are as if enemies are fixed entities not evolving with each other. We warriors for peace still do not know how to really counteract that. We have tried the arts, we have tried tourism, we have tried commerce, but the dance of death is more frightening and compelling to the masses. Why did the young generation succeed in the 1960’s to create a real alternative that attracted the masses, but …
September 4, 2014

Ask

Ask why to be a child,
Ask what to be an adult.
Ask why to be confused,
Ask what for clarity.
Ask why to be passive
Ask what to be active.
Ask why to mourn,
Ask what to build.…
September 2, 2014

Reflections, August 2014 vol.2

The stoics, the Epicurians, Taoists, Sufis, the Buddhists, all feel that the real prison is the human mind. I am still thinking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive The question now facing #Jews is how many #Palestinian lives should be sacrificed for one #Israeli soldier? 10? 100?

With children of #Syria #crdc and project Amal ou Salam

A budding #Syrian artist, generously giving his paintings away

A message of the children of #Syria

To be with victims in a time of war is to be @loss for words but not to be with them even one victim is to be @loss of your soul

#Syrians and #Turks deep in negotiations

The beginning and end of conflict prevention is gratitude. #peacebuilding

https://marcgopin.com/2014/08/23/urgent-on-syria/ please Share widely. It is essential to both save #Syria from #ISIS and to use all parties for immediate ceasefire.

http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/.premium-1.611395?v=680CA1F8707230AE49358F9E70E58220 Only by facing the death of #democracy in #Israel can you fight for …
September 2, 2014

Deus Ex Machina

Men who represent governments are not entitled to their own opinions nor do they control absolutely anything. Therefore those who are risking their lives around the world and ask government officials for their opinion are not only wasting their time, they are also putting themselves in danger. Do not make revolutions or rebellions or demonstrations based on external promises. Ever ever ever.

…
September 2, 2014

A Moment

It is a special agony leaving loved ones behind who go back to war. It is a special guilt that tears at the soul.

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